BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de León, Chair
AB 883 (Cooley) - Child sexual abuse: prevention pilot program.
Amended: June 15, 2014 Policy Vote: Human Services 4-0
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: June 23, 2014
Consultant: Jolie Onodera
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: AB 883 would establish the Child Sexual Abuse
Prevention Program as a pilot program in no more than three
counties to provide child sexual abuse prevention and
intervention services through public or private nonprofit
programs. This bill would annually appropriate $50,000 from the
General Fund to each county that voluntarily chooses and is
selected to conduct the pilot program.
Fiscal Impact:
Annual costs of up to $150,000 (General Fund) through 2018
to fund up to three pilot counties.
Minor administrative costs (General Fund) to the Department
of Social Services (DSS) to review applications for county
pilot selection and to review annual reports.
Background: Existing law authorizes the Office of Child Abuse
Prevention (OCAP) of the DSS to provide state oversight and
allocate state and federal grants to counties for various child
abuse and neglect prevention and intervention programs. Existing
law pursuant to WIC §§ 18960-18964 provides that Child Abuse
Prevention, Intervention, and Treatment (CAPIT) projects and
services are to be selected using specified criteria, with
priority given to private nonprofit agencies that serve the
needs of children at risk of abuse or neglect and that have
demonstrated effectiveness in prevention or intervention.
The 2013-14 Budget Act appropriation of $21.5 million for OCAP
included $7 million in federal grants, $1 million to the State
Children's Trust Fund (SCTF), and $13.4 million to the counties.
Beginning in the 2011-12 fiscal year and for each fiscal year
thereafter, funding and expenditures for CAPIT programs have
been realigned to the counties pursuant to 2011 Realignment.
AB 883 (Cooley)
Page 1
Proposed Law: This bill establishes the Child Sexual Abuse
Prevention Program, as a pilot in up to three counties that
choose to participate, to provide child sexual abuse prevention
and intervention services through public or private nonprofit
programs. Specifically this bill:
Annually appropriates $50,000 from the General Fund to each
county that voluntarily chooses and is selected to conduct a
pilot program to prevent and reduce child sexual abuse.
Provides that the DSS will select from among the counties
that notify the DSS of their intention to participate, based
on the agency's determination that the counties have
significant incidences of child sexual abuse or commercially
sexually exploited children and have a public or private
nonprofit organization with specified experience that is
designated to act as the primary administrator for the pilot
program.
Provides that each participating county is encouraged to
efficiently use the funds by giving priority to programs
currently serving the needs of at-risk children and that have
demonstrated effectiveness in child sexual abuse prevention or
intervention or commercial sexual exploitation prevention or
intervention.
Specifies the appropriated funds shall not supplant or replace
any existing funding for programs currently serving the needs
of at-risk children, but may only supplement the expansion of
existing programs or the collaboration of separate existing
programs within the county if no current programs exist.
Requires the county board of supervisors of a participating
county to allocate the pilot program funds according to the
bill's provisions and provides that the board may delegate the
administration of the pilot program funds to the county social
services department.
Requires nonprofit agencies to submit evidence to the county
as part of the application that the proposed services are not
duplicated in the community, are based on needs of children at
risk, and are supported by a local public agency, including
but not limited to one of the following: a county welfare
department, a public law enforcement agency, the county
probation department, the county board of supervisors, the
county public health department, the county mental health
department, or any school district.
Requires the administering local agency to, with oversight
from the county board of supervisors, include and integrate
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Page 2
the pilot program in the county system improvement plan (SIP),
county self-assessments, and the county plan for other federal
and state child abuse prevention programs.
Requires each county to annually report to DSS, the Senate and
Assembly Committees on Human Services, the following
information:
o Changing public attitudes or public opinion polls
showing increased awareness of prevention techniques for
child sexual abuse.
o The amount of educational materials distributed to
stakeholder groups that address and promote child sexual
abuse prevention and prevention techniques.
o Statistics on the increase or decrease of reports of
child sexual abuse within the county.
o Identified best practices used by the pilot program
which may be replicated and used by other counties,
including but not limited to community outreach, data
collection and analysis, and the creation of educational
materials.
To the extent applicable, requires the county to provide
similar assurances, data, and outcome assessments to the
Office of Child Abuse Prevention with respect to the pilot
program as are provided for other federal and state child
abuse prevention programs.
Includes uncodified legislative findings and declarations.
Sunsets the pilot program on January 1, 2019, unless a later
enacted statute deletes or extends that date.
Related Legislation: SB 855 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal
Review) 2014, the Human Services budget trailer bill,
establishes the Commercially Sexually Exploited Children Program
to be administered by DSS in order to adequately serve children
who have been sexually exploited. This bill requires DSS in
consultation with others, to develop an allocation methodology
to distribute funding for the program. This bill has been
ordered to engrossing and enrolling.
Staff Comments: To the extent DSS selects three counties to
participate in the pilot program, annual costs of $150,000 from
the General Fund would be appropriated to the participating
counties. The DSS would incur minor administrative costs to
review applications, select pilot counties, and review annual
reports.
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Prior to Fiscal Year (FY) 2011-12, the state and counties
contributed to the non-federal share of various social service
programs, including CAPIT. AB 118 (Committee on Budget) Chapter
40/2011 and ABX1 16 Chapter 13/2011 realigned state funding to
the counties through the 2011 Local Revenue Fund (LRF) for
various programs, including foster care, child welfare services,
and CAPIT. As a result, beginning in FY 2011-12 and for each
fiscal year thereafter, non-federal funding and expenditures for
CAPIT activities have been realigned to the counties.
Staff notes the 2014 Budget Act includes $5 million General Fund
in 2014-15 for a newly established Commercially Sexually
Exploited Children (CSEC) Program, and $14 million General Fund
annually thereafter, to include statewide training, the
development of local protocols for addressing victims of
exploitation, and specialized services. While the provisions of
this measure seek to similarly provide prevention and
intervention services to commercially sexually exploited
children, this measure also applies more broadly to all types of
child sexual abuse, of which CSEC is only one component.
Recommended Amendments: Staff recommends the following technical
amendment on page 3, in line 21: delete "agency's" and insert
"department's".